Chelsea 7Up

In the 2012/13 football season, Chelsea have the chance to win seven trophies. They are the following seven:

Community Shield

European Super Cup

World Club Cup

League Cup

FA Cup

Champions League

Premier League

Can you win all seven pieces of silverware in one season?

The first one is the first "competitive" game of the season ― the FA Community Shield against Manchester City on Sunday 12th August 2012. A game which Man City won 3-2 in real life, ending Roberto Di Matteo’s hopes of lifting seven cups at the first hurdle. Can you do better?

Later on in the month you will face Atletico Madrid at Villa Park on Friday 31st August 2012 for the European Super Cup. Chelsea lost this one in emphatic fashion, 4-1, in which Falcao enabled beast-mode and bagged a first-half hat-trick. By the time you come to play this game, Falcao could even be playing for you if you wish! That’s the beauty of Football Manager for you.

In December 2012, between Thursday 6th and Sunday 16th, your Chelsea side will take some time away from domestic football and travel to Tokyo to take part in the World Club Cup. It will be the first time we see "goal-line technology" used in football, and could also be when you get to lift your third trophy as Chelsea boss. The teams you face along the way will perhaps differ from saved-game to saved-game but there will always be the same few trying to stop you from winning your third cup. You will first face the winner between the 2012 AFC Champions League winners ― South Korean side Ulsan Hyundai ― and the 2011/12 CONCACAF Champions League winners ― Mexican side Monterrey. You will then, most-likely, face 2012 Copa Libertadores winners, Corinthians, in the final of the 2012 World Club Cup ― assuming they rise to see off whoever they are drawn against in the quarter-finals. So two relatively easy games… Will you choose to play some promising youngsters or go all guns blazing to ensure you make it three out of three?

The next chance to lift some silverware will be the League Cup ― or the Capital One Cup if you’re being fussy. A cup once claimed by Arsenal boss, Arsene Wenger, that winning it would not end his trophy drought as it simply wasn’t seen as prestigious enough. Manchester United boss, Sir Alex Ferguson, disagreed by saying it was a pot worth winning. It’s certainly worth winning if you want to complete Chelsea’s 7Up. As Chelsea are competing in European competition the rules state that they enter the League Cup in the third round. In real life they battered Wolves 6-0 before going on to a fantastic fourth round 5-4 win against Manchester United, lining themselves up for a quarter-final bout with Leeds United. It seems like in real life, Arsenal and Chelsea are taking this competition more seriously than years before. Maybe Wenger’s changed his mind… and maybe Di Matteo’s got his mind on still trying to win five? The final will take place at Wembley on Sunday 24th February 2013 and will hopefully be the venue where you lift your fourth prize of the season.

Another trip to Wembley Stadium should hopefully be on the cards for you on Saturday 11th May 2013, where you will be playing in the FA Cup Final and fighting for your fifth trophy of the campaign. You will start your journey to the final in the third round on Saturday 5th January 2013. You could then be as little as six games away from lifting trophy number five.

The next trophy you should get your hands on is the Barclays Premier League ― the English top league. Battling it out with rivals such as Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, and whoever else may be up there towards the end of the season; this could pose as your hardest coup. You will need prolonged good form, good luck, and good management skills to make sure you finish on top after thirty-eight games. Some may seem easy and some may prove harder than expected, but you must finish top of the pile in order to win your sixth medal. On Sunday 19th May 2013, real-life Chelsea will be hosting Everton on the final day of the season. In your game, the title could well be yours at the end of April, or even sooner, but you whenever you are mathematically the champions you will still only lift your penultimate trophy on that Sunday. Hopefully by that point it’s still six from six.

And so it comes to number seven of Chelsea’s 7Up ― the grand finale to end your masterpiece of a season and your third visit to Wembley to take part in the final of the UEFA Champions League on Saturday 25th May 2013. If you’ve made it this far, you’ve already had an amazing first season at the club and have deserved all the plaudits you have received from various sources up until this day. However, this would be the crowning moment, and one last bow to the hungry Chelsea fans. Will your team keep their nerve?

Of course you may take the dirt road to your seven trophies and instead find yourself in the Amsterdam ArenA on Wednesday 15th May 2013 for the Europa League final, after finishing third in your Champions League group and qualifying for its lesser counterpart. Sure, it’s still a trophy to add to the cabinet ― albeit at the back ― and still brings your total to seven… but it’s not the seven, and it really isn’t part of Chelsea’s 7Up. If you do win the Europa League, well done, but you could have done a lot better.

So do you think you can check every box and complete the Chelsea 7Up? Will you opt to use Di Matteo’s team or bring in some fresh blood? Are you happy to rely on Fernando Torres and Daniel Sturridge to score your goals or will you be looking to bring in a real replacement for Didier Drogba and bolster the front-line? Maybe you won’t be so happy with David Luiz’s suicide style of play and instead bring in a more reliable centre-half to work with Terry, Cahill and Ivanovic. And how about the backroom staff ― will you be keeping the club’s only senior female, Eva Carneiro, as the team’s head physiotherapist, and are you happy to work alongside Eddie Newton and Steve Holland? Don’t forget the introduction of Directors of Football in Football Manager 2013 gives you the chance to pick and choose how much or how little you do ― maybe someone else could find the transfer targets that would help bring home all seven trophies? However you choose to get there, good luck!

I wrote this myself as I prepared myself to start my first saved game on FM13, as I had to wait over a month between getting the game and getting the internet so I could finally play it (fuck you, Steam) and had to fill the void somehow. Please don’t re-post this anywhere without credit and linking to this thread on sigames.

If you were struggling to get into a game properly, or were fancying a go as Chelsea anyway, please post in this thread with your progress and anything else you wish. Winning all seven trophies will be hard but it’s certainly an obtainable target, so please share anything here you think may help others in achieving such a feat. Oh and most of all, make sure you have fun doing it. Also, please be honest ― NO SAVING AND RESTARTING IF YOU LOSE A GAME! Winning three or four is still not a bad achievement, you know.

Damn, I wish there was a Steam achievement for winning seven trophies in one season.

I'll give it a go as it would make a change to be a rich club and play normally. I guess you could change it a bit so that it doesn't matter with who and when you win 7up as long as its in one season. Nice challenge though and I will give it a go.